Thursday, December 14, 2017

Here’s the annual list of my favorite shows of the year. In no way
are these the “best” shows of 2017 because, for the life of me, I don’t know
what that means. I try not to be cute and impress you all with some obscure
series that is on some unknown network. These are all pretty well-known
properties. Although I call it the MASKED 10 it’s really made up of 15 shows
and eight of them were carryovers from 2016.

A lot of critical darlings are missing and, yes, I watched several
of them but I enjoyed these more. The one I have yet to see is THE HANDMAID’S
TALE which I hope to get to possibly over the Holidays. I think I’m going to
like it a lot.

As a scheduler, I cannot help but put some of these shows together
since the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

They are listed in some order of favoritocity so there is sort of a
new favorite among the favorites this year. So, here’s this year’s MASKED 10

Better Call Saul (AMC)

The Americans (FX)

Billions (SHOWTIME)

Game of Thrones (HBO)

Master of None (NETFLIX)

GLOW (NETFLIX)/Mae Young Classic (WWE NETWORK)

Silicon Valley (HBO)

The Deuce (HBO)

Jane the Virgin/Crazy Ex-Girlfriend/Riverdale (the CW)

Fresh Off the Boat/The Goldbergs (ABC)

Catastrophe (AMAZON)

Here are the five that didn’t make the cut but I thoroughly enjoyed
and would strongly recommend if you have yet to see.

The Magnificent Mrs. Maisel (AMAZON)

Girls (HBO)

Chewing Gum (NETFLIX)

Difficult People (HULU)

Fargo (FX)

If I can say there was one disappointment for me this year it was
the return of CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (HBO). It has run its course.

The Emperor’s New Clothes series of the year (there always are a
bunch to choose from) was LEGION (FX).

Here are the shows I watch out of loyalty and I’m looking forward
to a time when I no longer feel the obligation. I’m a completest.

The Walking Dead (AMC)

Orange is the New Black (NETFLIX)

Suits (USA)

Homeland (SHOWTIME)

Empire (FOX)

Finally, PREACHER (AMC) was the freshman show that I was so looking
forward to but I found the second season a disappointment.

I already have lots of stuff on the runway for 2018 viewing. It
never stops but there’s a lot of really good stuff out there 365 days a year.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Although there was a lot of sweet Jazz this year there was
nothing that I would call great or transcendent. These are the ten that would
catch my attention while I shuffled through the albums in my collection. The
pleasant discover was Joao Barradas and it’s always great when Cecile McLorin
Salvant blesses us with an album.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

TCA the Television Critics
Association Press Tour is rapidly approaching. I’m not going to go into my
annual rant about its obsolescence but rather I want to recommend that you
check out these thought pieces written by two of the preeminent Television
writers. Alan Sepinwall and Tim Goodman. I respect them both although Tim finds it necessary to block me on Twitter for some fakakta reason.

Tim’s piece is in the
Hollywood Reporter titled “The Post-Review, Post-Premiere, Post-Finale World of
Peak TV”. Alan’s article can be found at UPROXX with the catchy title “Does
Anyone Still Have Time To Wait For Shows To Get Good?”. The reason why I
recommend them prior to the start of TCA is that both, in their own way, are
pointing to an existential crisis among those who write about, review or recap
shows. Both articles also point the finger at “Peak TV” as the cause of the
current woes. I’ll talk more about the myth of Peak TV in another column.

Tim’s concern is that, as
viewing becomes increasingly untethered from a schedule, reviews and recaps are
still “linear”. The review comes out before the premiere, Recaps are generally
written the day after and discussion of the finale occurs at the end of the run
of a show. The consumption of the writing is becoming untethered in the same
way schedules are becoming less relevant. What’s a writer to do and, oh yeah,
he or she can’t get to everything either.

Alan comes at the woes of
Peak TV from a different angle. His thesis is (and I agree with him) that, with
so much TV to consume viewers no longer have the luxury to wait for a show to
“get good’ in the sixth or seventh episode. Consumers will move on and the
critic has to accept that they will not return. Viewers don’t have the luxury
of screening several episodes before realizing that something may be a gem.
Alan points out that it may take well into the second season of a show before
it blossoms. He credits his wife with the term “hope-watching” to describe this
phenomena.

One of the more interesting
points in the article is Alan’s theory that part of the blame for the slow
starts of shows is that streaming series are dropped in entirety (most of the
time) which emboldens the show creator to see his or her oeuvre as a movie
rather than an episodic TV show. What is even more intriguing is that Alan
posits that this form of storytelling is being adopted by cable and even
network television.

I have talked about cable
envy, the notion that networks started to see more failure as they tried to act
like a cable network in show selection forgetting that many quality cable shows
get small audiences. I actually had to shut down my blog back in the day for
making this point regarding a show called LONE STAR. Whether intentional or not
Alan has pointed out that there is now “streaming envy”. I want to think more
about it because I also think it has some negative consequences for the biz.

What’s sort of ironic about
these pieces is that network television has been described as a dinosaur by
many who write about the business and now they are realizing that the same is
true for their game. Theses to pieces talk about how to adapt to the new
realities…something the networks have been doing for decades.

I could go on but read these
two excellent think pieces. My guess there will be a lot of talk about Peak TV
and the business of writing and reviewing at this year’s TCA.